Roxsana Hernandez-Rodriguez

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The sixth soul in my En Memoriam project honoring asylum seekers who did not survive the rigors of the American border.

Roxsana Hernandez-Rodriguez, Age 33
of Honduras
Died May 30, 2018, New Mexico

Roxsana said she had fled Honduras in part because of the discrimination and violence she faced for being transgender. (She was gang-raped by four MS-13 members and contracted HIV. ) She said in an interview, "Trans people in my neighborhood are killed and chopped into pieces, then dumped inside potato bags."

Hernandez was one of roughly 25 transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals who joined the annual caravan of Central American migrants heading to the US border. She crossed at the San Ysidro Port of Entry near San Diego and was later transferred to a CPB facility in NM for transgender detainees. She succumbed to symptoms of pneumonia, severe dehydration, and complications associated with HIV and later died from cardiac arrest.

​Roxsana's story HERE.

Photo source: Luc Forsyth for BuzzFeed News

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